Apple Bans Facebook’s Onavo from App Store for Violating Privacy

2 min

We have seen a lot, but it seems that there is still to be seen on the subject of the treatment of personal information and Facebook. Now, it’s Cupertino smartphone giant Apple that has forced the social media network to pull its Onavo app from the App Store.

Facebook bought Onavo in 2013, an Israeli company whose flagship product was Onavo Protect, an application to protect our data when browsing through a VPN, in addition, it also alerts when an app is using a lot of data and allows you to set limits.

Later we learned that Mark Zuckerberg’s company used it as a tool to know our habits on the net, and apparently the activity of the app violates Apple’s conditions.

If we look in the iOS app store there is effectively no trace of Onavo Protect. We see a series of apps for an equivalent or similar use, but no trace of this product (unlike the Google Play Store, where it does appear).

What has happened?

According to a source of Wall Street Journal, Apple has asked for the elimination of the Onavo Project app because it was violating its new policy regarding the collection and use of data since by directly accessing the mobile connection, it obtains information about the total traffic of the device.

According to the source, those in Cupertino warned that Onavo Protect did not comply with the part of the agreement with the developers that implies that the data is not used beyond what is directly relevant to the app or to the ads.

And what happens if we already had it installed? It will not disappear, but after this restriction, Facebook will not be able to send updates to the app.

Cook vs Zuckerberg: Differences on the Concept of Privacy

Apparently, Facebook and Apple had the last meeting in which they discussed (cordially) this matter last week in the domains of Tim Cook, and according to the source of the WSJ Facebook accepted that they would have to remove the app from the store.

Although previously we could see how the CEOs of both companies maintained a cold war on the issue of privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that Facebook does a shoddy job of protecting its 2.2 billion users’ privacy—something that he has framed as “a fundamental human right.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg fired back in a separate interview and called Cook’s remarks “extremely glib.” According to Facebook, they have never hidden that the company uses the data of users obtained with Onavo and that the tracking is specified in the terms of use of the app.

With this movement of Apple, now they are left without a succulent source of information about their users, although they still have the entire mass of Android that continues to use Onavo.